Secretariat

Secretariat wins again. More than 39 years after the super horse won the Preakness on his way to a Triple Crown, the Maryland Racing Commission ruled Tuesday that he had set what was then a track and is still a race record, covering the mile-and-three-sixteenths in 1:53. Secretariat now holds the race record in all three Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont) events. "It's nice to finally have this recognized, because the sport depends on accuracy," said Secretariat owner Penny Chenery, who helped pushed for the adjustment.

Graham Peck, a 23-year-old from Baltimore, won the "Down the Stretch for SGK" Preakness 5K on Saturday morning at Pimlico Race Course , finishing in 17 minutes, 41 seconds. Jason Farber was second, 10 seconds back. Peck's father, Henry, finished 16th overall in 20:57 and his sister, Kaylyn, was the female runner-up. "It was a family affair. Running on the track was really fun, but it was wet, so it slowed us down," said Graham Peck, who ran track and cross country at Dulaney.

Secretariat's run for the black-eyed Susans may finally be headed for the record books, 26 years after his Triple Crown win.The horse, considered by some the greatest to ever race, set records in the 1973 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. In between, he won the Preakness. But Pimlico Race Course's official timer -- a device whose accuracy had been publicly criticized for years -- came in with an impossibly slow time of 1 minute, 55 seconds.Three men in the press box with stopwatches all clocked the winning time at 1: 53 2/5, which would have been a record for the race, one that has subsequently been beaten.

As Orb charged to the wire at Churchill Downs last weekend, he established his clear superiority to the other 18 thoroughbreds on horse racing's biggest stage, the Kentucky Derby. But compared to Derby champions of the past, Orb's time is less impressive - his 2:02.89 run doesn't rank among the top 10 in the race's history. It is slower than the times of many winners from the 1950s and 1960s, and well behind Secretariat's 1973 record. Blame the muddy track? Fair enough, but none of the past decade's Derby winners recorded a top 10 time either.

One contender for autumn box-office honors might break away from the field. With "Secretariat" (opening nationwide in October), director Randall Wallace has crafted a stirring, fact-inspired fable about the 1973 Triple Crown winner who was the greatest champ in horse-racing history. But Baltimore racing fans swept up in Secretariat's come-from-behind victory at the Kentucky Derby will get a surprise as Wallace guides the story into the Preakness. The director makes his most daring and unexpected move when the action shifts to Northwest Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course . Rather than lavish the same attention on re-creating Old Hilltop that he did on Churchill Downs, he shows the middle jewel of the Triple Crown entirely on television, as Secretariat owner Penny Chenery Tweedy's husband and four children follow the broadcast in their family room in Denver.

He won his Triple Crown a quarter-century ago and died in 1989, but Secretariat is still running.As a matter of fact, as weird as it sounds, he hasn't lost a race since he retired."

ELMONT, N.Y. -- It was as if Cigar understood that he had to do more than just win the Breeders' Cup Classic yesterday at Belmont Park.It was as if he understood that his credentials as a superstar were being debated among racetrackers everywhere, and that he had to deliver an extraordinary performance as an argument on his behalf.All he did was raise the echoes of Secretariat with a 2 1/2 -length victory that completed his perfect 1995 season and had a tough, wet New York crowd roaring in appreciation.

LEXINGTON, Ky. It was almost 20 years ago when a writer wondered why Penny Chenery got more television time than Indira Gandhi. The answer was simple: Secretariat.As Arazi has proved again, few phenomena turn the media world on its axis like the promise of a superhorse. Life changes for the humans living inside the vortex."It creates a great deal of pressure because everybody wants to know what you're doing with your horse every minute," Chenery said, recalling the year her family's Meadow Stable raced Secretariat to the Triple Crown.

NEW YORK -- He was Secretariat's best friend.But when Eddie Sweat died in April at age 59, he was destitute. His family couldn't afford to bury him.So a charitable organization paid for the funeral. And a former employer paid for Sweat's widow and two daughters to travel from their home in New York City to Sweat's home state of South Carolina.There, on April 24, a group primarily of relatives -- no one from Secretariat's inner circle was present -- gathered at Rock Hill A.M.E. Church in Vance, S.C., to bid farewell to Edward "Shorty" Sweat.

Because of a computer error, fractions were dropped from an article on the 25th anniversary of Secretariat's Triple Crown in Saturday's editions. The colt won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness by 2 1/2 lengths, and he won the Belmont in world-record time for 1 1/2 miles.The Sun regrets the errors.It has been 25 years since Secretariat took America on a white-knuckled joy ride, but his fans refuse to let go of the reins.Fresh flowers adorn the grave of the Triple Crown winner, nine years after his death.

On Wednesday at Churchill Downs, a crowd clad mainly in Louisville basketball shirts gathered at Barn 45 to watch Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino as he visited a horse of which he owns five percent. Pitino, a month removed from becoming the first coach in NCAA history to win Division I basketball national championship tournaments with two different schools, appeared at trainer Doug O'Neill 's barn shortly after 8 a.m. and joined an entourage following Goldencents.

Secretariat wins again. More than 39 years after the super horse won the Preakness on his way to a Triple Crown, the Maryland Racing Commission ruled Tuesday that he had set what was then a track and is still a race record, covering the mile-and-three-sixteenths in 1:53. Secretariat now holds the race record in all three Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont) events. "It's nice to finally have this recognized, because the sport depends on accuracy," said Secretariat owner Penny Chenery, who helped pushed for the adjustment.

Secretariat wins again. More than 39 years after the super horse won the Preakness on his way to a Triple Crown, the Maryland Racing Commission ruled Tuesday that he had set what was then a track and is still a race record, covering the mile-and-three-sixteenths in 1:53. Secretariat now holds the race record in all three Triple Crown (Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont) events. "It's nice to finally have this recognized, because the sport depends on accuracy," said Secretariat owner Penny Chenery, who helped pushed for the adjustment.

Secretariat's legend hardly needs bolstering. But, his supporters feel, the race he ran on the third Saturday in May at Pimlico back in 1973 does require revisiting. The Maryland Racing Commission agrees, and will consider a proposal to change Secretariat's Preakness time during its meeting next week. At issue is whether the colt had set a track record - as he had already done at the Kentucky Derby and would do at the Belmont. While hardcore racing fans have long felt that the strapping chestnut colt did, indeed, run the fastest Preakness to date, supporters - including owner Penny Chenery and Maryland Jockey Club president Tom Chuckas - are seeking to have the record officially changed as the 40th anniversary of his Triple Crown win nears.

Tim Lare of Hampstead came to his first Preakness in 1973, the same year Secretariat won the middle leg of the Triple Crown.  "I think he paid $2,80," Lare recalled Saturday.  Lare kept going to Pimlico for its big race every year until 2000, and stopped because of the rowdiness in the infield. He had tried the grandstand once, but didn't like it because "it was too crowded. " Carl Kemp, a friend of Lare's from Carroll County, had given up going in 1999, tired of what he called "ignorant" people who ruined the day with the drunken behavior.

Somewhere it must be written on a stone tablet — or on the back of a betting slip — that heading into the third weekend in May, we must again examine who we are and why the Preakness Stakes is such an important part of that. The answer is not just at Old Hilltop, but in every place around Baltimore where one generation clings to tradition while the next tries to conform it to the realities of a new age. That's why on the same (hopefully) sunny Saturday afternoon, the swells in the box seats will sip their Black-eyed Susans while the sots on the infield hail something called Kegasus and wonder why they can't bet on him. The Preakness is Baltimore in so many ways that you'll have to just take my word for it. To those viewing from afar, the second jewel of the Triple Crown is — like the old town around it — the halfway point between here and there.

It is rare for officials in any sport to rectify a lingering, embarrassing mistake. It is even rarer when a silver-lined opportunity presents itself to correct the error, especially when it would benefit everyone connected to the sport.That is precisely the opportunity Maryland racing officials have this week as they salute the 25th anniversary of Secretariat's spectacular Triple Crown sweep in conjunction with the 123rd running of the Preakness.You see, 25 years ago, while the great horse was winning the hearts of millions in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes, Maryland racing officials failed to honor him with their best effort - robbed him, in fact, of the singular most amazing feat in Triple Crown history.

The move to reopen the investigation into Secretariat's 1973 Preakness time gathered some momentum yesterday at a routine meeting of the Maryland Racing Commission at Laurel Park.Marty Jacobs, executive general counsel of the Maryland Jockey Club, said the organization will "make a formal request" of the panel to look into the matter, which has been a subject of debate for a quarter-century."Computerized timing is available now, and we believe it will reveal the true time as opposed to the official time," said Jacobs.

Handicapping a horse race like Saturday's Preakness is an iffy proposition for amateurs like me. Over the years, horse players of my acquaintance have picked favorites based on the names of the colts; any horse with a name resembling that of a relative was an automatic choice. The color of the jockey's silks also figured in the equation; ladies do love pink. Then there were picks based on the size of the horse's rump, with bigger being better. Sham's magnificent hindquarters caught my eye back in 1973.

Great, but not greatest Tom Jicha Sun Sentinel Win or lose, undefeated Zenyatta is one of the greatest horses ever and deserves the Horse of the Year title she was denied last year. However, she might not be the greatest horse, or even female horse, at the Breeders' Cup this year. Goldikova, 6-5 favorite in the Turf Mile (for comparison sake, Zenyatta is 8-5 in the Classic), also will be bidding for a third consecutive Breeders' Cup championship. Unlike Zenyatta, who will be racing outside her gender for only the second time in 20 starts, European-based Goldikova has defeated males numerous times.